Tap handles are made of wood and urethane. Kurt Koenig works in the urethane room and created a part that that will be used in a tap handle for Ohio's Maumee Bay Brewing. Mark Hoffman, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Interested in this topic? You may also want to view these photo galleries:

RANDOM LAKE — Angie Koenig’s view of the bar changed forever when she took a job at Hankscraft AJS.

Beer lovers look at a tavern’s tap handles as a menu — a way to decide which brew to order. Koenig looks at them and wonders “Why didn’t we make that one?”

It doesn’t happen often.

Hankscraft AJS is the largest domestic manufacturer of beer tap handles; Koenig is in charge of designs they create with a laser printer.

You’ve seen the work. The tap handle shaped like a guy with a pointy head — AJS made those for Stevens Point Brewery. AJS fashioned the block top for Lagunitas; the ball shape on top of a Bell’s tap handle; the trademark white handle for New Glarus Spotted Cow.

Hundreds of samples line the display case near the office door, from the simple block style for Good City Brewing to vintage Miller Lite handles shaped like spindles.

The small factory in Random Lake — population 1,573 — produces 500,000 tap handles a year from design to assembly. Some are for beers AJS workers likely will never taste. Texas brewery Running Walker doesn’t distribute in Wisconsin but sought out AJS to make elaborate tap handles featuring two dogs circling a tree.

“A cross between manufacturing and art,” is how general manager Mark Steinhardt describes what AJS does.

Wisconsin is squeaky cheese curds, fishing spots, Packers fans and time spent by the lake. It’s also the Milwaukee entrepreneur, the Hmong artisan and the dairy farmer. Stories in our Be Wisconsin series look at deeply rooted tradition and at the surprising ways the state culture is changing.

Wisconsin is squeaky cheese curds, fishing spots, Packers fans and time spent by the lake. It’s also the Milwaukee entrepreneur, the Hmong artisan and the dairy farmer. Stories in our Be Wisconsin series look at deeply rooted tradition and at the surprising ways the state culture is changing.

Andrew J. Sanfelippo (where the AJS comes from) worked for a company in Plymouth that manufactured point-of-purchase displays and created some tap handles. When that company disbanded just over 30 years ago, Sanfelippo brought the tap handle part of the business to his hometown.

AJS sells tap handles directly to breweries, which sell them to wholesalers. Back when Sanfelippo started the company, a bank of tap handles at a bar might have meant four. Today a bar might display 50 or more, said company president Eric Gruener.

In a field that includes nearly 7,000 craft breweries, “the handle has become a marketing piece. It’s an extension of the brand,” Gruener said. “The craft beer industry doesn’t look at each other as competitors. But when you look at a bar, that’s where they all compete.”

CLOSE

The biggest domestic maker of tap handles is Hankscraft AJS, a bustling company in the tiny Wisconsin village of Random Lake.
Pete Sullivan, Wochit

Brewers want to stand out, but they have to do so while abiding by a few common standards: Tap handles should weigh less than a pound (for ease of tapping) and they should be no wider than 3 inches so they don’t touch the one next to them.

Oh yeah, and they should be distinctive.

In another set of offices — the factory appears to be a series of connected buildings — art director Cole Krueger has an image of a bright green witch’s hat on his computer screen. He’s working up a design for Witch’s Hat Brewing in Michigan.

“Sometimes they have a sketch on a cocktail napkin,” Krueger said, laughing. He grabs a tap handle prototype made for a Florida brewery that includes a moving propeller.

Handle costs range from $15 to $40, depending not just on detail but on materials used.

From barrel staves to hand painting

In the urethane room of the factory, Kurt Koenig crafts a urethane apple and a jester hat that will be included on the tap handle for a cider company.

Buy Photo

Toni Vandeloo uses a machine to drum and flap the sharp edges of a piece of wood that will become a tap handle.(Photo: Mark Hoffman, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

On the main floor, employees run pieces of wood through a CNC, a router that cuts the shape of the handle before going to a lathe where a worker spins and turns the piece one handle at a time.

Shavings from the wood are sucked up in a giant vacuum and collected in bins to be given away to local farmers for use as animal bedding, Steinhardt said.

Cut pieces go to the prep area for painting or staining. Kathy Yearling sands the first coat of paint on each handle before it gets a more detailed coat of automotive-quality paint in the back. To get to her work area, however, a visitor has to pass a box full of balls designed to look like baseballs. These are rejects.

Better quality balls are fastened to screws in another machine and then to the top of a stock of handles that will be used for Dodgers Blonde Ale from Golden Road Brewing.

Some tap handles are hand painted. Central Waters Brewing, for example, asked for a bride and groom set of the herons that are the Amherst brewery’s signature tap handle. The birds are hand-painted and take four to five hours each to complete, said Jackie Jentges, who has been with the company since 1989.

“We had them make a bride and groom for weddings that are booked at the brewery,” said Anello Mollica, co-owner of Central Waters. The first couple bought the tap handles. Central Waters requested more.

Kathy Yearling sands the first coat of paint on pieces of wood that will become tap handles.(Photo: Mark Hoffman, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Years ago, Central Waters had its tap handles hand-carved and painted by a 90-year-old man from Wausau, But as business boomed, it needed to find a company that could make the handles more quickly and efficiently. Mollica said at that time there were only two tap handle makers in the country. He picked the one closer to home.

“We could make our handle by outsourcing it to China,” Mollica said. “We wanted to keep it local.”

Mollica estimates that Central Waters orders three to six dozen new tap handles a month. Some are sold through the Central Waters online store.

AJS helped Central Waters out with another thing Mollica had been considering — a lighted sign. It cut the top off the head of a barrel and backlit the sign.

Central Waters provides barrels that have been used for beer aging to make signs; AJS gives the brewery credits because it uses leftover staves from the barrels to create tap handles.

The explosion of craft breweries has made an impact, which created more competition domestically and internationally. But at the same time, more beverages than ever are available on tap — wine, spirits and other adult beverages. Applebee’s had AJS make tap handles for a special event. Tito’s, a vodka company, ordered its own tap handles. AJS is also finishing up special 2019 Boston Marathon tap handles for Boston Beer.

The company has adapted to fickle consumer tastes and the quest for the next new beer by producing tap handles that allow for an easy switchover when beer styles change. On some handles there are spaces to pull a card each time a bar switches up the beer, like replacing an IPA for a milkshake IPA. Some tap handles have magnets for the beer style name. Because it has a full woodworking shop, AJS also wooden flight trays and chalkboard signage for sale.

The public can purchase unadorned tap handles from the AJS website. To get tap handles for a specific brewery, visit that brewer’s site.